State thinking about putting microchips in pets

A California state senator, with the support of veterinarians
and animal lovers, wants to inject dogs and cats with
microchips.

Sen. Jack O'Connell, D-Santa Barbara, has proposed Senate Bill
236. The measure would make it a crime for any person to "own,
harbor, or keep any dog or cat over the age of four months" unless
the animal had been fitted with a microchip and the owner's
identification had been entered into a database approved by the
federal Department of Food and Agriculture.

O'Connell said he introduced his bill to help reunite lost pets
with their owners.

North County Humane Society officials say they've been injecting
the dogs and cats they put up for adoption from their shelters with
rice-sized identification microchips for years and they said making
the practice mandatory is a good idea.

Some microchip proponents said tracking all pets to their owners
could stop people from setting their dogs and cats loose when they
tire of them, which could prevent the killing of thousands of pets
in San Diego County and hundreds of thousands statewide.

Pauline White, chief administrator in the San Diego office of
the California Veterinary Medical Association, said animals that
are turned loose often breed, leading to even higher numbers of
unwanted dogs and cats.

"Unfortunately, we have a 'disposable-pet perspective' by a lot
of people and it's getting worse," White said.

Statistics from the California Department of Health Services
support White's opinion.

In 1998, 503,559 dogs were processed by county shelters. Of
those, just 17.9 percent were reclaimed by their owners. Another
17.7 percent were adopted. But 61 percent -- 308,921 dogs -- were
euthanized.

For cats, the picture was bleaker. County shelters processed
359,093 cats. Just 1.9 percent were reclaimed by their owners.
Another 17 percent were adopted. But nearly 78 percent -- 278,940
cats -- were euthanized.

San Diego County fared better. In total, 30,977 dogs were
processed in shelters. Of those, 22 percent were reclaimed by their
owners, 24 percent were adopted out, and 50 percent were
euthanized

Shelters reported 22,224 cats were processed. Of those, just 360
cats, 1.6 percent, were reclaimed by owners. Another 28 percent
were adopted, and 67 percent, 14,976 cats, were killed.

Harold Holmes, field supervisor for the North County Humane
Society in Oceanside, said the Oceanside shelter has been putting
microchips in the dogs and cats it offers for adoption for several
years. But Holmes said he doubts making the microchips mandatory
will have much effect on people who discard their pets.

"Let's say your dog gets loose, we find it running at large and
we impound it," Holmes said. "We contact you, and you're like,
'Hey, I don't want the dog.' We currently have no law that would
require you to take the dog back."

Veterinarian Richard Schumacher, the executive director of the
California Veterinary Medical Association, said even if there are
no laws on the books requiring people to re-claim their pets,
mandating pets be fitted with microchips would at least "identify
people who violate the law and don't keep control of their
pets."

The veterinarians and humane society officers contacted by the
North County Times said microchips are very effective at
identifying animals and reuniting them with owners who do want them
back.

"It's a wonderful way to track animals," said Carrie Hoff,
spokeswoman for the San Diego County Department of Animal Control.
"We brought in a dachshund in October 1999 and scanned it. We found
that it was from Phoenix and had been missing for over a year. The
owner had no idea how it got to San Diego. And we were able to
reunite the dog with its owner."

Schumacher said microchips for pets were created about a decade
ago. But until recently, competing companies discouraged the
creation of a scanner that could "see" each other's microchips.
Consequently, the technology was too expensive for most shelters
because they had to have each company's individualized scanner to
find the chips.

A universal scanner was developed a couple years ago, making the
technology more accessible, Schumacher said.

"We think they're better than tattoos," Schumacher said,
referring to the fact that police dogs imported from Germany are
often tattooed inside their ears for identification purposes.
"Tattoos can be changed or not seen."

Schumacher said inserting the microchips is not a surgical
procedure. The chips, which are roughly the size of a grain of
rice, are injected into the dog or cat with a syringe, usually
between the shoulder blades. However, the chips themselves are
useless unless the pet owner then registers the chip identification
in the chip manufacturer's database.

However, if O'Connell's bill is eventually passed, it could make
registration mandatory -- a condition of sale.

Schumacher said the veterinary association hopes that if
legislators approve O'Connell's bill, the new law will allow pet
owners enough time to comply with the requirement, rather "than
make criminals" out of pet owners whose animals lack the
microchips.